People rely on disposable absorbent products in their everyday lives, including such articles as adult incontinence products, enuresis pants, training pants, and diapers. Many manufacturers seek to better meet the needs of users of such products. Some manufacturers, for example, have sought to develop products that absorb better. Others have sought to improve fit. Still others have sought to reduce leakage.
Men and women have different body compositions (e.g., percentage of body mass consisting of muscle), different skeletal structures, and age differently. As men get older they tend to lose muscle mass in their legs, resulting in thinner legs. In fact, the circumference of the leg of a typical male user of an adult-incontinence article may actually be smaller than the circumference of the leg of a typical female user of an adult-incontinence article—a counterintuitive finding. Also, for anatomical reasons, men typically release urine at a location further toward the front of the body, while women release urine at a location generally lower on the body compared to men. Furthermore, the shape of a man's hips and groin area is different from a woman's hips and groin area.
We are not aware of product designs, product lines, or ways of marketing that address these and other differing body characteristics of men and women who use disposable adult-incontinence products.
One feature that is important to users is the ability of the article to minimize leakage of fluid, such as urine. To assist in minimizing leakage, disposable absorbent articles may employ a pair of containment flaps that are configured to provide a barrier to the transverse flow of body exudates. In common configurations, one or more flap elastic members are operatively joined with each containment flap to elasticize the flaps. The elasticized containment flaps define an unattached edge which assumes an upright, generally perpendicular configuration, which may form a seal against the wearer's body. The opposing end of the flap is attached to the article. Exemplary constructions and arrangements for containment flaps are generally described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,116 issued Nov. 3, 1987 to Enloe.
While containment flaps can be used in many types of disposable absorbent articles, including training pants, enuresis pants, diapers, adult diapers, and adult pull-on style disposable absorbent underwear, containment flaps have not heretofore been commonly used in adult pull-on style disposable absorbent underwear. Moreover, although the prior art is replete with attempts to vary the construction of containment flaps to improve their performance generally, no attempt has been made to construct containment flaps in a way that addresses the differing body characteristics of men and women who use disposable adult-incontinence products.